Day 22: Let the Actors Tell the Story

Monday, May 9, 2011

DAY 22, MOVIE 1:

Sense and Sensibility (1955), directed by Ang Lee. I keep reading good things about Ang Lee’s films, and every time I watch one of them I have always felt uninvolved and bored. He always seems to suck every story he touches dry of anything resembling entertainment value. I don’t care how well you can wield a camera, or if you can get good performances out of actors, or whatever it is people like about his movies; if you can’t use all the elements of filmmaking to create something remotely entertaining, then you are not a good director. Even the most hardcore artistic film directors can make their stories entertaining, but for some reason Lee’s films are simply dull to me. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was nothing more than something pretty to look at. Hulk was an obvious unwatchable mess. But his film The Ice Storm was a rape of the very medium of movies. The film used to capture the images of that so called movie is the unluckiest film in the world. Now that I’ve gotten my personal feelings of Lee’s films out of the way, this brings me to the fourth movie of his I’ve seen: Sense and Sensibility. The big question for me is: was it any better than his other movies? Unfortunately, no. I’m afraid I have the same complaints as stated above. The moment the film started, all the energy was sucked out of my room, thus beginning this 2 hour and 16 minute endurance test. It’s about a woman whose husband dies, and due to a technicality of the time, she and her three daughters get cheated out of the inheritance they deserve. Sense and Sensibility felt more like an exercise for actors rather than an actual story. It’s an acting showcase, an excuse for the performers to recite Jane Austen dialogue. As for Lee’s direction, he does nothing to make Sense and Sensibility a story for the screen. When a director takes on the task of adapting a book, he has to be able to sift through what works for the printed page and what works for the camera. The pacing of a book is different from the pacing of a movie, and if the director does nothing to get the point of the book across as quickly as possible using a perfect balance of acting, editing, cinematography, sound, and music, then the audience will be left with a slow paced bore. For the fourth time, that is unfortunately what Ang Lee has delivered to me.

DAY 22, MOVIE 2:

Tropic Thunder (2008), directed by Ben Stiller. Tropic Thunder is one of my favorite comedies from the past ten years. The story is nothing we haven’t already seen, but the cast and variety of characters raise the bar for big ensemble comedies. Tropic Thunder is about an all-star cast in a Vietnam movie that’s thrown into the jungle in order to get some realism out of their performances. But of course, everything goes wrong. All forms of actors are represented by the characters. Ben Stiller plays the action hero, Robert Downey Jr. is the actor who takes his roles way too seriously, Jack Black is the comedian, Jay Baruchel is the young actor making his breakout performance, and Brandon T. Jackson is the rapper breaking into acting. The whole movie is making fun of the Hollywood system of making movies, and it does a good job at it. Nothing is left untouched by Tropic Thunder, there are scenes poking fun at agents, producers, directors, awards, trailers, talk shows, stunt and effects men, everything! One of the smaller jokes that I think is hilarious is how rapper Alpa Chino (Jackson) uses his performance as a chance to cross-promote his line of energy drinks. This is clearly a crack at the excessive product placement seen in action movies these days (just look at any Michael Bay film for examples). If you always find yourself constantly researching the filmmaking process, and you haven’t yet seen Tropic Thunder, then you will be in for a treat.